Monday, October 18, 2010

Halloween Treat: Attack of Vampiric Pumpernickel Bats!

This weekend we had the crappiest weather! Dark and stormy, right out of a scary movie. As a result, I got into a comfort food-making mood. Here you have my roasted butternut squash soup topped with croutons I made out of this bread machine pumpernickel bread. Yes, I was going stir crazy and a tad bored so I had a little Halloween foodie fun.

Now of course you can just buy a loaf of pumpernickel if you want but I had never made it myself and wanted to try give it a shot. I had zero idea what went into it and had no idea it was actually a healthy rustic bread. Rye flour, whole wheat flour, molasses... now here is a loaf I will feel less guilty eating! The weird part? This recipe called for cocoa powder! The cocoa powder darkens the loaf to give it that rich earthy colour. Clever!

As it churned away, all I could smell was chocolate and caraway seeds, how weird! This is one of the few breadmaker recipes I have made that did not require adding additional water to make the dough come together.

The loaf was moist and delicious for a pumpernickel which is impressive! I made chicken paninis on these for dinner alongside the soup. Perfect autumn comfort food.

Using a bat-shaped cookie cutter, I cut out quite a few little bats, put them on a baking sheet and baked them in a 325F oven for ten minutes. They became very crunchy and stiff.

I added a dollop of sour cream to the soup which I shaped into a spooky moon with a toothpick. I added two spicy red eyes to the bats using Sriracha hot sauce and floated them on top of the soup. The little bit of sour cream made the soup extra creamy and the hot sauce added a nice bit of heat that deepened the flavours of my roasted butternut squash soup even more. I think my husband is going to want little vampiric pumpernickel bats on my homemade soups from now on. They were delicious and so much fun!

As we ate we sang the chorus of my favourite Sesame Street song, The Batty Bat. I know most people feel like a kid at Christmas time but for me it is Halloween that makes me feel playful and silly.

Awesome bread and bats Suzie, is there anything that breadmaker of yours can't do? It's amazing.

As for the Batty Bat thank you so much for cracking me up. We have the movie "Elmo Says BOO!" on VHS and I can't tell you how many times I've sat through it with my guys and thouroughly enjoyed every minute of it, and of course the Batty Bat is featured in the movie. I can sing along word for word, I don't think we ever outgrow Halloween or Sesame Street:)